Day 3 – Hello, Sweetie.
I’m a little late today for Day 3 of the Challenge of Doom!, but that Alex Kingston fansite wasn’t going to read itself! It leads directly into this evening’s post though, so all is well. Without further ado…
Day 03 – The cast from your favorite show
It took me a minute to come up with my favorite show, but in the end it came down to the fact that I would rather talk about Doctor Who than Spooks. Both are epic and fantabulous, but Doctor Who has River Song. And I love River.
The cast of Doctor Who changes every season, at least in part, so I am going to concentrate on this past season; season 5. We have a new Doctor in Matt Smith, who replaced my Doctor (every Doctor Who fan has “their doctor”), David Tennant. I didn’t really like the new Doctor at first, to the point I even made a blog post about it right before the season finale. But after that final episode (which was amazing), I went back and rewatched the entire season to catch what I had missed. Trust me, you will want to do the same if you want the season all the way through. And this time through, I got it. I don’t know if it was because I stopped comparing Matt to David, or if I noticed the brilliance of how they played all of the character interactions because I already knew the plot or what, but the second time through I really loved the new Doctor. As a credit to the new cast, I have actually watched the newest season more than any of the previous seasons; and I have watched the previous seasons all numerous times.
To the Doctor’s right is Amy Pond. Or Amelia, if your prefer and it doesn’t seem a bit fairytale to you. She is the Doctor’s companion for this season, and I thought she was really good. I’m not sure where she falls on my ranking of all of the companions (I loved Donna and hated to see her go), and I may never really know since the dynamics are always so different. I’ve watched the season opener where she screams “WHY DID YOU SAY FIVE MINUTES?!?” before immediately collapsing back into worry that she shouldn’t have spoke about a dozen times and it never gets old.
Amy’s fiance, Rory, is not pictured. Mostly because I don’t care about him enough to not use the above pic. I said this in my previous post, but I think he just acts too much like a person really would in such a fantastical situation. I don’t need that in my light hearted adventure drama. He’s fine, but ‘eh’.
That brings us to the woman on the Doctor’s left. Professor River Song (“ooo.. I’m going to be a professor someday! Spoilers!”). We first met River in season 4 for what is the best story of that season. In it we are told that she and the Doctor keep meeting out of order. In this instance, it is the first time the Doctor (Tennant at the time) had ever seen her, but River had an entire diary of their times together. Flash forward to season 5 and here we are again, meeting River in completely the wrong order. We have not been told exactly who River is, though many things are assumed. Is she the Doctor’s lover? His murderer? The best conman of all time? The Doctor him/herself? No one knows except River, because she is the only one who has lived through it all. The rest of us are just catching up.
What we do know is this. She is completely badass. Imagine James Bond merged with Indiana Jones. That. Just as a snarky woman. It’s brilliant. And what is more brilliant is this… for the most part, we are taking her word for it when she tells us who she is and is not. Even with her complete refusal to tell us (or the Doctor) much for fear of giving spoilers into the Doctor’s own life, she has led all of us, Doctor, Amy, and audience alike, down a way of thinking that makes her who we believe her to be. Maybe it is all true. Maybe none of it is true. The writers claim that in season 6 “everything changes” concerning River and the Doctor. If season 5 is any indication, it will be brilliant. I can’t wait.
